Monday, June 02, 2008

Deuces

The Deuces Wild Festival is one of the best events in Arizona. I raced both the triathlons on the mountain bike (road and mountain triathlon). However, while coming into the transition zone during the Olympic Road Triathlon, I unhooked my helmet, so I got DQ'ed. I guess that someone was supposed to inform me before I left transition and completed the run.

That said, passing a few Ironman wannabees on their $3,000-$5,000 road bikes and shaved legs on my ghetto mountain bike with knobbys was pretty amazing. Like last year, I was the only person on a mountain bike during the road triathlon. I got a few "wow" and "on a mountain bike?" The wind started to pick up toward the beginning of the hills, so I started to get past a little more. According to Debbie from Trisports.com, my combined times for both triathlons would have earned me a 1st place title in combined times between the two races had I not been disqualified.

My results are somewhat disappointing since I was DQ'ed and the fact that I am not in the same "running shape" as I used to be. Last year, I ran the same course about 4 minutes faster. Yesterday during the run course, I had to revert to survival mode during the run and about 10 people passed me. This goes the same for the mountain bike course that was only 15 miles long; my ability to spin fast for one hour has been replaced with the ability to ride for 12+ hours, sometimes ride almost 24 hours like the AZT 300 and the 24 Hours of OP.

I still enjoy triathlons but my training has transitioned to my endurance mountain biking this past year, hence my current running shape and results. Additionally, I rarely actually schedule a brick into my weekly rides, so that hurts a bit on my performance. Anyway, my next triathlon is the Mountain Man up in Flagstaff, another road triathlon. The Kaibab Monstercross and Coconino Dirty Century are the next endurance mountain bike races (both 100+ miles) during the month of June, looking forward to both of them.